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THE BANDONEON AND CHEMNITZER CONCERTINAS

by

Pat Robson

"The Bandoneon? Not really a concertina - more of a South American accordeon - I

don't suppose they made many - far too difficult to play - it never made much impact -
what's a Chemnitzer? - never heard of it!"

This is a summary of remarks I used to hear. Often, alas, from other box-squeezers,
often bigoted, who needed to be better informed.

A South American accordeon? - It doesn't play chords, nor was it made in South
America. It's German, a direct descendant of the instrument devised in 1835 when Carl
Uhlig, a Chemnitz musician, dissatisfied with the melodeon he played, split the keyboard
between the ends of a hexagonal box, the better to play harmonies, and coined the name
"Concertina" for the result.
In many countries 'Concertina" means either Uhlig's eventual square German Chemnitzer,
or the Bandoneon. Hexagonal and Octagonal instruments are called "English-style
Concertinas", no matter what type of keyboard they have.

They didn't make many? - Only hundreds of thousands! South America had an estimated
20,000 players. Germany had over 800 Bandoneon/Conccrtina-playing clubs. In the Ruhr it
was so popular they called it the "Coal Miner's Piano".

Difficult to play? - Quite the reverse. It is one of the easiest of complete

instruments for simple music. With its Chemnitzer relative, it shares a method of
initially playing "by numbers" - envied by melodeon teachers - with lots of annotated
music. Bandoneons are big, but kids of seven can play simple tunes "by numbers", with full
harmony and accompaniment, on the small 39-button Chemnitzer after the first lesson.
Once the playing method is understood, progress to larger instruments is easy. But
be warned! Trying at first to play by ear, shunting as for an Anglo, gets you nowhere
fast. Once the right method is understood it all gets progressively easier, for these
instruments were developed over the years for ease of playing by the many musicians who
made them.

Never made much impact? - From the Bandoneon in the 1890s came the music and sound of
the Argentine Tango. Many were written by professional players, of whom there have been
hundreds, often four or more to a band, scores of them virtuosi. Others have played
everything from folk to Classical, or modern pieces specially written. It is taught as an
orchestral instrument South America, with full-time courses at the music Conservatoires.

Why, then, are these concertinas so little known, or unheard of, in England?

Isolationism! They passed us by. After Buschmann invented the mouth-organ in 1821, and
melodeon in 1822, a German free-reed industry sprang up in 1825. Their 1835 concertina
was a money-spinner, exported everywhere.
Further development, masterminded by Uhlig, was done by small people unable to match
the big factory's sales promotion. By 1840 Heinrich Band, a Rhineland musician, began to
develop Uhlig's box, now with 28 buttons, into an orchestral instrument for his town band.
He and his relatives started marketing their "Band-Union Concertina", with 50 buttons, in
1846. By 1900, the full size, with 72 buttons, had arrived.

All this passed us by. Our rich dilettantes were engrossed with Wheatstone's efforts,
a vast improvement on the cheap 20 key German "toy" which our other makers were busily
improving, oblivious of the German developments.
The Bandoneon was ousting the Chemnitzer except in the USA, who began importing it in
1850, eventually making and developing it further into what is, by far, their most popular
concertina.
* * * * * *

"To buy a Concertina is a good investment for any young man, to study
and play it is the best employment of his spare time"

...from Silberhorn's Tutor of cl911

 page 2
THE BANDONEON AND CHEMNITZER CONCERTINAS

The Tango reated a growing demand for Bandoneons. No need for any promotion, the
1914 - 18 war came soon after the Tango arrived in Europe. After that; Jazz and the
Depression. Unions weren't keen on foreign musicians. Though firmly established in Paris,
the traditional Tango band stayed unknown to us. The sophisticated nusic of the classical
Tango would have had little appeal to our cloth-eared public. A London shop advertised
Bandoneons, but with awkward "piano" or "Meisel Chromatic" keyboards. There were no
instruction books for the original diatonic system the Tango bands used.

After the last war interest in all Squeeze-boxes lapsed for a time. The chief maker
of Bandoneons, Alfred Arnold, had their East German factory confiscated in 1949 and
production ceased. Arno Arnold restarted in the West for a while, but the old quality had
gone. The famous Arnold "Double A" Bandoneons of the 1930s, with their pearl inlaid rose-
wood casings and fabulous tone are still in regular daily use. Audiences now listen
instead of dancing, and interest in their music increases.

A few new bandoneons arc made, but are expensive, as are good used ones in South
America. Their Chemnitzer relative, whose tone is not so important, is made in Italy and
the USA and used in the Polka bands around Chicago. Frequent Concertina Conventions in
the USA last into the small hours for days on end, sometimes with over 150 players plus
dancers.

We have missed hearing the many Argentine big bands with their "files" of four or
more Bandoneons and some of the finest dance music - not all of it Tangos - ever written.
Bandoneonists introduced long passages in counterpoint and "variations" worthy of any New
Orleans clarinettist, into their music in the 1920s. To hear a real Tango now, you must
go to Paris. Meanwhile, there is no reason - other than financial - why some of the USA's
Chemnitzer players should not be persuaded to visit us and show what their instruments can
do. It would open the eyes of those who live in the past!

An improvement on the melodeon? The latest four-voice development of Uhlig's box

outperforms any type of accordeon while the Student's 39 button model plays, with its own
accompaniment, in at least four keys and could be available from Italy at low cost, with
excellent instruction books in English from the USA. It would cope with nearly all our
folk dance music and has a powerful sound. The Bandoneon, with its nostalgic voice that
"cries with the memory of a long-lost love", is more special and is only made full size.

And all this began as an instrument to be "slung around the neck and used for playing
hymns in funeral processions"!

These large boxes are now always played seated, though the strap eyes remain, as do
the chamfered corners, giving an octagonal look to the ends in memory of their origin.
Little physical effort is needed to play them, which is a very rewarding occupation.

My information comes from players, makers and dealers in the USA and Germany, a 17
volume history and comprehensive "Who's Who?" in Spanish on the Tango, and many other
miscellaneous reliable sources.
* * * * * * * * *
Robson, Pat, "The bandoneon and Chemnitzer concertinas", International Concertina Association:
Newsletter /325 (s.l., United Kingdom: March 1985), 1-2.

Copyright © 1985 by International Concertina Association. All rights reserved. Content

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